iPhone Apps are the Real Money-Maker, Analyst Says
According to a new study, some smartphone owners spent as much on applications for their cell phones last year as they did on the devices themselves.
Call it the Apple App Store effect, says the ABI Research study on mobile storefronts. Despite having one of the smallest catalogs of all the development platforms -- now around 15,000 app titles compared to 85,000 each for Palm and RIM -- Apple's iPhone App Store has generated significant sales across the board.
"Apple did a lot for the market [last year] with its massive marketing effort telling the public how great mobile content is," said senior analyst Jeff Orr in a news release. "That created a 'halo' effect for the rest of the industry: other device manufacturers and content developers working on non-Apple platforms all saw a bump in sales and downloads because there's more awareness of the smartphone category."
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